CCRStandardsAdultEd

APPENDIX F. BIOGRAPHICAL

APPENDIX F. BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARIES 126 Mathematics Facilitators Melanie (Mimi) Alkire Educational Consultant and Principal, Alkire Consulting, Bend, OR Melanie Alkire is an educational consultant and principal at Alkire Consulting in Bend, OR. Currently she is working with Achieve, Inc. on the alignment of standards for states and districts with the American Diploma Project Benchmarks and the CCSS. She serves as assistant examiner for Higher Level Mathematics with International Baccalaureate Americas. Ms. Alkire was a secondary math teacher with the Portland Public Schools for more than 30 years. She holds an A.B. in mathematics/education from Northwest Nazarene University and an M.A.T. from Lewis and Clark College. Francis (Skip) Fennell L. Stanley Bowlsbey Professor of Education and Graduate and Professional Studies and Project Director, Elementary Mathematics Specialists and Teacher Leaders Project, McDaniel College, Westminster, MD Francis Fennell is a mathematics educator with experience as a classroom teacher, school principal, and supervisor of instruction. Dr. Fennell is presently the L. Stanley Bowlsbey Professor of Education and Graduate and Professional Studies at McDaniel College in Westminster, MD, where he directs the Brookhill Foundation supported Elementary Mathematics Specialists and Teacher Leaders project. He is a recent past president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). Dr. Fennell is widely published in professional journals and textbooks related to elementary and middle-grade mathematics education, and he has authored chapters in yearbooks and resource books published by NCTM. He was a member of the writing teams for NCTM’s Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (2000) and Curriculum Focal Points (2006) and the Common Core State Standards (2010). Dr. Fennell also served as a member of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel from May 2006–April 2008 and has received numerous awards in the areas of mathematics and teacher education, including NCTM’s Lifetime Achievement Award (2012). He holds a Ph.D. in mathematics education from the Pennsylvania State University.

APPENDIX F. BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARIES 127 ELA/Literacy Panel Members Robert Curry Associate Professor and Chair of English and Humanities, Alfred State, State University of New York (SUNY) College of Technology, Alfred, NY Robert Curry is associate professor and chair of English and Humanities at Alfred State, SUNY College of Technology, where he directs the freshman writing program, overseeing course and program development and assessment; instructor hiring, training, and mentoring; and student writing placement and exit assessments. In 2011, Dr. Curry was selected by the New York State Education Department to serve as the state’s higher education representative for the 22-state Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) consortium’s work to develop new K–12 English language arts (ELA) assessments based on the CCSS, work he continues as a member of PARCC’s ELA Core Leadership Item Review Team. He serves in a similar role for the New York State Regents’ work in developing assessments and instructional support for the CCSS. He also served as a consultant to the GED ® Testing Service, assisting its efforts to redesign the GED ® to reflect CCSS priorities. Dr. Curry holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Connecticut. Mary Beth Curtis Director, Center for Special Education, Lesley University, Cambridge, MA Mary Beth Curtis is professor of education and founding director of the Center for Special Education at Lesley University. Dr. Curtis is also founding director of the Boys Town Reading Center in Nebraska. Before joining Boys Town USA in 1990, she was associate professor of education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and associate director of the Harvard Reading Laboratory. Dr. Curtis is the lead author of the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Vocational and Adult Education’s (OVAE’s) STAR (Student Achievement in Reading) Tool Kit, and she leads program evaluation activities for the National STAR Training Network. She served as a subject matter expert for another OVAE teacher quality initiative, Teaching Excellence in Adult Literacy (TEAL). Dr. Curtis earned her Ph.D. in psychology at the University of Pittsburgh and completed postdoctoral work at the Learning Research and Development Center in Pittsburgh, PA.